Hey there, it’s been a little while since I posted, and for good reason. The last thing I posted was a survey asking a few basic questions to see where you wanted Pizza Box Games to go. Well, after some feedback and planning I’ve decided to lay out the plans for Pizza Box Games. Some might seem far-fetched and some might seem totally practical.

• Cells

The project Cells is going to be shelved for now. The reason behind this was that the project was becoming pretty big in written form, and I did not want to compromise that vision. I have instead decided to find more reasonable goals for a first project that are attainable in a short amount of time.

• Wandering Beast

The project Wandering Beast is what I’m planning on being the first big release for Pizza Box Games. This decision was relatively easy for me to make due to a lot of personal weight behind the intent of the project. So you’ll see more on that project in the coming months.

• What is Pizza Box Games?

This was a question I had to ask myself after seeing some feedback. Is it a game studio? Is it just a blog for me to vent? Or is it something else entirely? A lot of weight has been on this question, and the conclusion is Pizza Box Games is first and foremost a developer of story-driven games. Around the games there will be a plethora of content and not all of it will relate to a game or a current project. This will come in the form of comic strips to lighten the mood, a possible podcast, and perhaps some play through’s of our favorite games.

• JB aka Joshua Bingaman

Joshua is an awesome dude that has been on his own journey of learning to make games. He and I are now in the early stages of working together with the learning the process of making games and creating entertaining games for you great folks. Joshua is a jack of all trades and his constant drive to learn new things and achieve his goals is so inspiring. I’m looking forward to share what crazy things we can come up with.

• Short Term Plan

The short term plan for me personally is to learn Unity through their tutorial series: Ruby’s Adventure: 2D Beginner. This is to get my feet wet and dive into 2D game making. I’ve already started the course and am making progress, albeit slow, it is progress nonetheless.

                While I’m learning Unity I will be writing for Wandering Beast. Sketching is on my daily itinerary for the project to study characters, art style, and the overall tone of the project.

   The blog will become a monthly post in order to save more time for working on the project and learning. Don’t fret! Because I am writing comic strips to post on Sundays that won’t be relate to game projects.

I have some long-term plans, but want to wait until we have some road behind us and we’re running full steam. It’s a long post this time, but there was a lot to cover. I can’t wait to see where this journey takes us. Thanks again for all the love and support,

-JT

As promised, I made a brief survey to get some feedback from you on where you want this whole thing headed. I would be extremely grateful if you could take a few seconds to complete it. I will be keeping the survey up until I receive enough feedback.

Follow this link for the survey. Thanks again for your support!

-JT

   Change is good. It brings about new things and ideas, and in many ways can transform an already good thing into something great. I have been mulling over some changes lately to how I want to approach Pizza Box Games and wanted to share what I’ve come up with. Don’t worry, its nothing drastic, just some minor tweaks to what I’m doing.

                You may have noticed I took last week off from posting, and a lot of that had to do with personal reasons, but some of it was getting into a better rhythm for Pizza Box. I have been posting weekly, which takes up a good chunk of time, but I felt it was essential to starting a good brand. After a couple of months I feel like a weekly post is creating some difficulty in getting into a good workflow. I have decided to make two posts a month, one encapsulating the work I’m busy on, while the other will be more personal and introspective.

   In order to feel out other directions to take Pizza Box I am making a survey. The goal of the survey will be to guide Pizza Box into the near and distant future. It’s exciting to think about my stories being in the hands and minds of others, but in order to get to that point there is a lot of work to be done. That’s where the survey will help me see where you want this to go, because without your help I won’t be able to share what’s in the works.

                This is an exciting adventure we are taking, one with hills and valleys. There will be times of joy and celebration, then also times of difficulty and hardship. No matter what time we find ourselves in, I hope that I can create incredible things that excite you and fill you with wonder. Thank you so much for sticking with me so far. Until next time,

-JT

                This past week I have been busy (per the usual) but have found a little bit of time to devote to making some rough sketches for Cells. So far I’ve been exploring the main character and non-playable characters. My goal when I sketch out characters for any project is to find the feeling and essence of the world through the characters. This can be front-facing sketches to see facial details, showing age or wear, or perhaps a full body sketch to explore clothing.

   My biggest breakthrough has been for the officer’s uniform. Sometimes you sketch several different iterations and find the best one, while other times you strike gold drawing up exactly what you want you were looking for. When I started thinking about and writing some dialogue for the officers in Cells I wanted them to come off as somewhat robotic, with minimal detail and have a harshness about them. I came up with a rounded helmet that covers their head from the nose up, while below that is covered by loose fabric. Their clothes consist of a leather trench coat and baggy pants that tuck into a military boot.

                The front of the helmet holds small sensors for viewing a sensor on the side for hearing. The fabric at the base of the helmet was intended to add a thin veil to their remaining humanity and I didn’t want to follow trends of futuristic-looking robot dudes. Their trench coat is weighty and thick, hiding body language, thus giving the officer an appearance of being shrill and harsh. The pants and boots seemed to be an obvious choice to me, given that their head and torso seemed so military-esque.

    I’m not posting any new images as of yet, but if you’d like to check out these sketches to see what I’m referencing, you can check them out on my Instagram – @troxman. It’s a short post this week (more time for learning and creating) Thanks for supporting this (whoever you are), until next week.

JT

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Learning to make games and working on Cells has kept me busy. Finding time to devote to this whole thing, a minute here or there, or a chunk of time on a specific day has been pretty tiring. This can be said of making any art or any type of work. I knew this whole project would be difficult, but as someone once said “Life, uh, finds a way.”

I’m pretty sure they were referencing something else entirely, but nevertheless I feel the statement can be true of this project. Maybe tack on “- to interrupt work on your game.”

            The past two weeks have been pretty taxing personally. Making time to learn Blender, writing, and painting has been extremely difficult. Every day it has seemed like a new problem has come up or something injects itself into my schedule. Even though Pizza Box Games is a long-term endeavor, in the short-term I’m avidly seeking a job in the industry (hopefully involving painting) that has provided an entirely new set of problems and frustrations. Every time I look at my portfolio I can’t see myself getting any attention and then I remember to keep moving forward, to keep pressing on no matter what.

   After all, this is what I want to do in my life. Telling stories through art is in my bones, as cliché as that sounds it’s no less true. I’ve been drawing, painting, and writing since I was thirteen, and ever since I’ve been fixated on telling stories one way or another. The challenge now is getting myself into a work situation that sharpens my abilities and fine tunes my capacity to create. Once I get there I know I will excel and grow, because that’s just what I do.

            This post is a personal one, one that is honest, open, and above all truthful about where I am in the process of learning to make video games. Thank you for checking in. Your support is greatly appreciated. Until next time,

JT

Every few weeks I’m going to share a small dip into some story-building for one of my current projects. Some of you know I am hard at work at writing Cells. Today you will get a glimpse into the world of Cells. This is a small journal entry of Matthews, a prominent character in the game. Matthews is a by the book detective within The Information Department of The State. In This entry you will see Matthew’s convictions and drive for following and carrying out the law of The State.

                Journal Entry 309, week 45, day 2

   Today I saw a man pissing in an alley on my way to the station. His clothes were raggedy and torn, his face covered in what I hope was dirt, and his shoes, well his shoes were new. The State understands that shoes are more important than clothes on your back. Couldn’t get to work each day without a good pair of shoes under your feet. Even though I sympathized with the man, who I later found out was homeless, the law is the law and the destruction of any property must be dealt with as if they are an enemy of The State.

                When I got to the office, filed the paperwork for the man, and finally sat down to a hot cup of coffee at my desk I realized I had a full docket of interviewees down at the Department of Technology. Thankfully I had a few minutes to spare, otherwise Phillips would have gone ahead with the interviews. Even though Phillips is a sharp whip, he lacks the trust in The State. Last week I heard him say that he might see about getting vacation time with only four years under his belt, something no State officer would ever imply, because it is widely known you are only allowed time off after ten years of service. Some of the officers just don’t trust The State enough to understand that they know what’s best for us.

   Interviews went well again today. I’m starting to fully trust the new software and understand it’s usefulness. I always trust The State will have top of the line interview systems, but this one was different. Using connections between memories and current actions through non correlative questioning was odd, I’ll admit, but damn those results have been fantastic. We’ve had an 84% success rate with the software and today we managed to uncover a large terrorist cell in the capitol.

                                Work ran late again, forcing me to stop by the only open deli on the way home for the usual sandwich. I know after working for The State for twenty years my time to be allowed to marry is coming, just hope she can make half a decent sandwich as Lonzo or just make a good meal. Heading to bed after I watch The State news for today. Today’s overall rating would be adequate.

    That’s it for this week. I hope you enjoyed the small peek behind what Cells will be. Don’t forget, if you have any questions, feedback, or interest on working with me to create cool content please say hi. Or just start a conversation, I’m cool with that too.

   I knew that when I started this process of learning to make games that it would be challenging. There is learning all sorts of software, scheduling my workflow, and on top of it all managing my day to day routine. With that being said, this journey has been a sluggish start to the marathon that is game development. What began as an idea to finish a game this fall and then switch full time to making games simply isn’t feasible.

Now, with a couple of months behind me I am focused on making a game that is complete, polished, and fulfilling. My first project, Cells, was initially going to be a minimalistic game set entirely within the UI, with multiple choice options and voice over guiding you. I began seeing the project differently and viewed the initial idea as incomplete. So, where does this leave Cells? What is Cells becoming?

   Cells is planned on being a brief experience with the multiple choice options as portions of the game, rather than the entirety, and I have planned for the majority of the game to take place in a top down view with minimalistic 3D assets. I knew once I decided to go this route it meant more work for me. More software to learn, more art to create, and more time to devote to the project. The goal of the project is to get comfortable with my tools so I can make great games.

A close friend of mine, who has been giving me advice and critiques from time to time, has hammered into me to iterate. Iterate. Then iterate again… Maybe iterate one last time. Ive always iterated, but now it has to be just right, it has to be as perfect as I can get it within the constraints that I have set for myself. Having friends, family, and acquaintances to give me meaningful critique is pushing Pizza Box forward and allowing me to fulfill my potential as an artist.

This is all a learning process for me and it’s taking a lot of patience. I’m learning so much each week and making more progress than I’m giving myself credit for. All in all I’m having so much fun with everything and I’m super stoked to show off the game once it’s in a playable/showable state. Thanks for reading, supporting, and just being interested. Until next time,
JT

Journeys all have one thing in common, they start and end somewhere. My journey, the journey of what is now Pizza Box Games, has been in the making for quite some time. I remember being thirteen and thinking ‘ I want to make video games someday.’

At the time I felt, like many thirteen year old kids, that anything is possible. After all, I had my whole life ahead of me and nothing to lose. I had always been drawn to art through sketching, painting, and to be honest finding ways to procure some version of 3D modelling software. In my teenage years I found myself pulled and tugged by several creative avenues for my future. I dabbled in acting, dipped my toe in writing poetry (yes, it was bad), and spent a good deal of time with a digital camera.

Nothing really satisfied my hunger and thirst for creativity like spending time sketching up a video game character or writing a fictional narrative. I decided to embrace my passion for video games and go to college for video game design. The program wasn’t what I expected, but opened a door to the art world. Immediately I became more interested in conceptual art, fine art, and more traditional forms of creativity.

I transferred to a liberal arts college and took on a focus in painting. Four years later I walked out with a lot of knowledge, skills, and a feeling like something was missing. I lost the reason why I was going to school, why I was learning all of these amazing subjects. After graduating I spent the next year figuring out what the hell I wanted to do. Make comic books? No. Become a graphic designer? Didn’t sound like me. Or I could do what everyone suggests these days and do some freelance web design? Nope!

One thing kept crying out in the back of my mind, like a child lost in a city alley screaming out for help. The child within me, that thirteen year old in me cried out something that I was somewhat afraid to admit. ‘ You need to make video games!’

When I admitted to myself this is the path I want to take I began looking into work opportunities. Because of some circumstances in life I wasn’t able to move out of the area, so it came down to remote work. Even after five years of school and what seemed to be endless practice I wasn’t confident in my work to become a concept artist. I definitely wasn’t adept at 3D software to push out a portfolio.

So, I decided to take control of my life’s goal. I planned on starting a video game studio, then I began the stages to actually start said studio. Now, well.. now I’m in the middle of learning Unity, writing scripts, and preparing a business plan. It is a truly exhilarating feeling fourteen years of work and progress inching ever-closer to the starting line of making games for a living.

Pizza Box Games is intended to be a new kind of game studio. A studio that is open and honest about what is happening on a personal and professional level throughout development of all projects. Obviously there will be certain things held close to the chest until the time is right to talk about and show what is being worked on. Every two weeks there will be a new post encapsulating development/learning processes or a personal view on creating games. Thanks for reading, until next time,

-JT